These business apps can keep you organized

There are many keys to running a successful small business. One of the more important? The owners of small businesses need to be organized. It’s too easy to miss an important task. Luckily for us, the iPhone — a tool of choice for a lot of small business owners — features several apps that can help business owners organize their time more effectively. The Web site Business News Daily highlights some of the best.

Fantastical 2

Yes, your iPhone already comes with a default calendar app. But it’s not that good. The $1.99 Fantastical 2 calendar app, though, is. Business News Daily raves about a number of its features. But the most interesting? You can tell Fantastical 2 what you must do in a given day — for example, you can say “I’m meeting Sarah for dinner on January 21 at five p.m.” — and the app will instantly schedule that appointment for you. That’s a true time-saver.

Schedule Planner

The schedules of business owners can quickly become chaotic. A good scheduling app is very important. The free Schedule Planner app is one of these. Business News Daily has plenty of nice things to say about Schedule Planner: It’s easy to learn, easy to use and provides several powerful features. A neat feature? Business owners can assign colors to different tasks: Red can mean meetings, blue can mean sales calls and orange can mean free time. The app then generates charts to show you how much time you’re dedicating to each activity. This is a good way for business owners to evaluate their priorities and make changes when needed.

Any.do

To-do lists are critical for business owners. But pen-and-paper lists are, of course, limited. The free Any.do app changes this. This electronic to-do list includes its own set of intriguing features designed to help business owners operate more efficiently. For example, you can add tasks to four categories: today, tomorrow, this week or someday. This helps owners keep track of immediate tasks and long-term goals both.